A bloody night in Tyre, then Israelis warn: Sidon is next

Israel was set to push deeper into Lebanon last night after dropping leaflets over the port of Sidon, warning families to flee the area.

The alert followed a night of bloodshed in an Israeli land and air attack on Tyre.

Witnesses said Israeli commandos were disguised as Hezbollah fighters and Israel said it killed seven of the enemy and destroyed rocket launchers. But Hezbollah said it had repulsed the raid, killing at least one Israeli commando.

The push to Sidon would be Israel's deepest incursion into Lebanon for more than 20 years. It could see troops move up to the Litani river, 19 miles north of the border.

Israel's warning to Sidon is an attempt to avert civilian casualties ahead of a blitz on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon's third-largest city - attacks which will be carried out with 'full force', its leaflet warns.

"Criminal terror operations have been carried out from your area, firing missiles at the state of Israel," it says. "For your security, leave the area immediately and head north. Who stays is risking his safety."

Fears grew for Sidon's 100,000 population and the tens of thousands more who have fled villages in southern Lebanon over the past 26 days to escape Israeli strikes.

Despite the new Israeli threat, by nightfall yesterday Hezbollah had fired 200 Katyusha rockets at towns and villages across northern Israel, killing three women in an Arab community.

The victims, believed to be a mother and daughters, died as their home took a direct hit. Daily rocket attacks have intensified in the past four days, with 800 fired into Israel from areas that it claimed it had taken.

In one frantic period in mid-afternoon, nearly 130 rockets landed in a 60-mile area from Haifa on the coast to close to Tiberias, by Galilee.

Twelve were also injured in the missile attacks - and 33 Israeli civilians have now been killed in rocket strikes.

But Major-General Udi Adam, chief of Israel's Northern Command, said yesterday: "We have hit a number of launching sites of long-range missiles. We have hit more than 50 per cent of their arsenal."

Seven full Israeli army divisions of 10,000 troops are operating across a 70-mile stretch of border and Israel said that in the previous 36 hours it had flown 170 missions to hit suspected Hezbollah targets.

Also yesterday, an Israeli soldier was killed by Hezbollah mortar fire in the east Lebanese village of Taibeh.

The bombing of four bridges on the main coastal road north from Beirut on Friday has left aid agencies looking at bringing in supplies by air. The UN refugee agency called the bombing a 'major setback'.